What Happened in the Nebula?
by general-delta
Summary: After severing Zarkon's connection to the Black Lion, the team thinks they've managed to escape their Galran enemies, but once a mysterious hacker leaves behind a message leading into an unstable nebula, they realize that the danger has only just begun again.
1. Scene 1

(3rd person P.O.V.)  
Lance decided to cook breakfast today. Turns out, he's actually a pretty good chef.

The doors from the kitchen burst open, almost theatrically, and a cloud of steam rolled out at Lance's feet. Trays and plates of delicious-looking food were stacked precariously on his arms, but he expertly balanced them all, not even letting a single crumb drop.  
"Ladies and gentlemen, breakfast...is served!" He swooped upon the table, sliding the dishes out in a neat row. I could already hear Hunk drooling excitedly.

Shiro raised an eyebrow skeptically, and prodded at the nearest plate with his fork. Keith experimentally sampled a light purple dumpling, and was silent for a moment. His expression changed. Gone was the eternal frown, and in its place was a look of pure joy. Upon seeing Keith's reaction, everyone else dug in to their meals, and started commenting on his cooking.  
"Lance, this food is amazing! I didn't know you could cook!" Allura gushed, her usually calm and collected demeanor slipping away to childlike wonder, "I haven't tasted anything like this since Altea!"  
Pidge mumbled in agreement, her mouth stuffed full of food like a chipmunk. Hunk tossed her a napkin, while laughing hysterically at the sight. Turning to Lance, he thanked him immensely for offering to cook, saying how nice it was to eat something other than food goo and his own cooking. Keith, Shiro and Coran hadn't stopped eating since they first tried the food, and were close to their third plate of food before Allura had to intervene and make them stop for air.

After all stomachs were stuffed to the brim, and everyone was close to falling into a food coma - scrap that, Pidge was already asleep - those who were still awake stumbled out of their chairs and collected up their plates, wandering into the kitchen to drop off the dirty dishes and clean up from the meal. Lance was practically glowing with pride at his culinary success. He knew his Abuela would be proud of him, if she could see him now.

The rest of the morning was spent sleeping off the food, with Allura and Coran taking turns on lookout duty at the main control room. The castle was finally quiet, with only the mice wandering around the halls for once.

Naturally, that was when the alarms started blaring.


	2. Scene 2

(Pidge P.O.V.)

Whoever is attacking the castle better have a really good reason for it.  
 **I'm not kidding.**

I woke up from the best nap I had taken in days to the sound of loud alarms screeching and red lights shining in my face. Seriously?! Can't a girl get any sleep around here? After the whole Zarkon tracking fiasco, I was sick and tired of rude awakenings and alarms. Especially alarms. One day, I'm gonna change the sounds to something a little less... _abrupt._ Maybe windchimes?

As I yanked my sweatshirt over my head, the lights flickered momentarily, before shutting off altogether.  
"That can't be good," I said, and ran for the helm. Once I reached the end of the hallway leading to the main control room, I heard a strange clicking sound coming from behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, my eyes widened at the sight, and I frantically activated my jetpack to move faster. The gladiator robot had escaped from the training room, and had just caught sight of me. I already knew how dangerous that thing was - Keith and Lance had already told me about their encounter with it near the airlock. Up ahead, I saw the main doors starting to slide shut. No no no no no no no... this was not good. If they close, I'd be trapped with a murderous robot. With a final burst of adrenaline and panic, I leaped through the narrowing gap and barely managed to avoid getting crushed. All of the others were already working to stop the castle from going haywire, but by the look of it, they weren't doing great.

Frowning in concentration, I sat in my chair, and immediately multiple warning signs popped up on the screens. Someone from the outside was clearly hacking our systems, and trying to mess up our ship. Not today, Satan. Fingers flying, I set about creating a program to block the mystery hacker, and after a few tense minutes, I grinned in triumph.  
"Take that, you son of a -"  
"Pidge! Language!" Shiro called from his chair, annoyed but relieved. No more warning lights appeared on the consoles, and the castle didn't seem like it was about to explode or try to kill us. I kept typing, reversing the effects of the hacker, and soon all that was left were fragments of a program that didn't seem to have any purpose. It didn't sit right with me. Whoever got into our systems was good, and wouldn't leave bits of code everywhere like an amateur. Leaning back in my chair, I pulled up the various pieces on the main screen. What was the meaning behind these?  
I didn't notice my teammates standing behind me until Hunk sneezed, and I jumped a foot in the air.  
"Hey! Don't sneak up on me like that!" I shrieked indignantly.  
Ignoring my discomfort, Allura leaned over me, and pointed to the fragments.  
"What are these? if I didn't know better, I would say they almost look like puzzle pieces."

A lightbulb went off in my brain. If this was what I think it was...  
Carefully, I drew outlines around each of the bits of text, and started to rearrange them. A pattern started to form in front of me, and I slapped my forehead at the simplicity of it. Whoever wrote this is probably laughing their head off.

I gently dragged the last piece into place, and gasped. The pattern was clear as day now - A interlocking spiral of dots and lines, with a larger dot near the lower left edge. Coran spoke for the first time since I entered the room, his voice grave.

"Team, I do believe that Pidge here has assembled a map. A map to one of the most dangerous patches of space - the Du'lian Nebula. There is nothing on the castleship's records of what could be there, and our scanners can't see into the nebula itself because of all of the radiation and stardust. If you wish to pursue the scoundrel who nearly tore apart our ship, I recommend we search there."

Allura grimaced. She knew going in blind to dangerous territory always ended in disaster.

"I'll set a course for the Du'lian system. Everyone, prepare for a wormhole jump. We're going in."

A few seconds later, the familiar swirling gateway appeared ahead, and swallowed up the ship with a blue flash of light.


	3. Scene 3

(3rd person P.O.V.)

Moments later, the Altean castleship re-emerged from the wormhole, with its crew on high alert for an ambush. It wasn't the first time their enemies had been lying in wait, and since they didn't know who had sent the coordinates, it was highly likely that someone had set it up as a trap. Inside the main control room, everyone held their breath, expecting the worst to happen. The tension in the room was palpable. Allura scanned for hostile ships, while Coran readied the particle barrier and castle defenses. The Paladins' hands hovered over the buttons which would open their lion's hangars, ready to leap into action at a moment's notice. The castle drifted for a few minutes, and nothing happened. No ships raced out from behind asteroids to attack. No battlecruisers showed up from the depths of space. It was oddly quiet.

Shiro broke the awkward silence.  
"Do you think it's safe?" His question was aimed at Allura, who was still checking the console for any signs of an enemy fleet.

"It would seem so, Shiro. Nothing has shown up on our sensors, and we have not been attacked thus far. I do believe that we are in the clear for the time being."

There was a unanimous sigh of relief. Not an ambush. Not a trap. Pidge pulled up a strange scanner on her chair's screen, and stared at it for a few minutes, evidently searching for something. Hunk came over to examine the scanner as well, and frowned at the readings that showed up onscreen. When the other team members looked at one another quizzically, Pidge explained to them,  
"My tech can't see what's inside the nebula, even at this close range. The only way to find out what's at the coordinates is to travel into the nebula itself."  
Coran piped up from his station near the window,  
"I'm afraid it will have to be just you five going in, since the castle is far too big of a target, and will be heavily damaged by the stars forming in the nebula. In your lions, you can navigate around the more dangerous patches, without getting hit. I've sent a tutorial video on the dangers of nebulae to each of your lions, for you to watch and inform yourselves of what you're flying into. Now off you go, Paladins, and good luck!"

As each of the Paladins left the control room, some more willingly than others, (Hunk was very apprehensive about flying blind into one of the most volatile patches of space, but a glare from his teammates spurred him on) Allura fearfully watched them go. Upon noticing her anxious look, Coran reached out and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.  
"They'll be fine, princess. After all, they've handled far worse than a cloud of fiery space dust - what could possibly go wrong?"  
She turned to Coran with worry filling her eyes.  
"That's what I'm afraid of, Coran."


	4. Scene 4

(3rd person P.O.V)  
Five brightly colored comets shot out from the ship in unison, coming together into a tight formation. The nebula loomed in front of them, a cloud of luminescent dust, with tiny stars dancing around in the rainbow gases; some of them even looked close enough to touch. The pilots gazed up in wonder, mesmerized by the light. All except for Shiro. Noticing his teammates' distracted looks, he called out over the comms,  
"Alright, team, stay focused. Each of you, watch Coran's video, make sure you learn everything you can about this place. We'll need to stay sharp in order to stay alive."

Their awed expressions vanished quickly, and their focus shifted to looking over the info from Coran and looking around for any sign of danger. Allura watched fearfully from a distance as the translucent mass enveloped her teammates - no, her friends - and they disappeared from view. Soon, even the scanners were no longer able to see them, and their comms shorted out in a burst of static only moments later.

Inside the nebula, the team clung together, lions nearly touching. Each pilot was nervous, even the infallible level-headed Shiro, and failing miserably at hiding it. Noticing his friends' anxiety, Lance attempted to lighten the mood with some bad jokes and flirting tips, which only brought good-natured groans over the comms. Lance smiled slightly.

"Annoyed is better than scared, I guess," he mumbled under his breath, so the others couldn't hear.

Over the course of the next few minutes, they passed several different colored patches of stardust, as well as a couple of tiny stars. Pidge and Hunk cooed at the adorable little fireballs, and explained to the others that the nebula was basically where stars were born.  
"So it's a star nursery?" Keith asked skeptically, "What would happen if I set some of this dust on fire? Would another star form?"  
Pidge laughed.  
"No, the end result would be something similar to setting a bomb off in your face. Try to avoid using your lion's fiery laser here, unless you want all of us to be incinerated."

They continued to soar onwards, and soon a large dark shape emerged from the swirling cloud. It grew clearer as they approached, and soon even Pidge, with her less-than-perfect eyesight, could see that the mysterious object was Galra in origin. Their trademark-purple quintessence tubes ran along the edges of the floating building, blindingly bright even through the haze. There were no visible entrances, or patrol ships flying around, which struck Shiro as odd. Usually there was some sort of defenses, but not even a security drone flew out and attacked them for trespassing on their little patch of nebula.  
"Does anyone else think this seems too easy? I mean, by this point, we're usually fighting off an entire fleet of battleships, but there's been nothing. Nothing!" Lance pointed out, incredulous, as the lions landed on the outside of the building with an ominous clang. Each of the Paladins glided out of their lion's open mouths, and landed gracefully near a clearly marked airlock hatch. Well, except for Hunk. He overshot his landing a bit, and teetered at the edge, before Keith sighed in exasperation and pulled him back to stand with the others. Lance rolled his eyes. Classic Hunk. Shiro powered up his arm, and bent over to tear off a panel in the hull, revealing a mess of wires. Once the mainframe was exposed, Pidge kneeled next to him. Two lines snaked out of the wrist-computer on her flight suit, and latched on to the glowing cables. A few minutes (and some skilful hacking) later, the airlock hatch popped open with a pneumatic hiss, and the Paladins squeezed inside. They had infiltrated a secret Galra base without a hitch, and it looked like this mission might be their easiest one yet.


End file.
